1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally pertains to the visual modeling of speech, and more particularly to supplemental displays and advanced visualization modes for use with a computer-animated “talking head”, and other similar forms of computerized speech modeling which provide a visual component.
2. Description of the Background Art
Visual speech synthesis provides for the visual display of articulators used in the production of speech. Visual speech synthesis has been applied to a number of applications, such as speech therapy, teaching of the hearing-impaired, and realistic facial animations. One preferred method of providing visual speech synthesis is with computer-animated talking heads. These talking heads typically provide a three-dimensional rendering of a generic canonical face whose movements are synthesized in synchronization with a segment of speech so that facial movements and positioning may be associated with the speech being produced. The underlying model for generating the facial features of the talking head typically rely upon modeling the underlying muscles within the head, or the relative movements of the skin on the model. When utilized for teaching speech production articulation, the facial movements are associated with the generated speech. It will be appreciated therefore, that aspects of speech production may prove difficult to comprehend and reproduce given the limited information available from the visual information provided by a conventional talking head. In particular, many of the facial movements can be ambiguous when viewed from the conventional talking head representation, for example, the production of the initial sounds in “bee”, “pea”, and “me” in the bilabial viseme category. It should be further appreciated that a hearing loss would further compromise the ability of an individual to discern the use of various speech production articulators.
Therefore, a need exists for a talking head that simplifies discerning the use of speech production articulators to reproduce a given segment of speech. The present invention satisfies those needs, as well as others, and overcomes the deficiencies of previously developed talking head models.